> And as it turned out, a wetsuit and PFD wasn't such a bad idea after > all. OK, since you mentioned my name in this post I feel somewhat compelled to cause a little bit of trouble here. Those of you who have had enough of the pfd thing can stop reading now. It would seem to me that not only the pfd and wetsuit was handy in your aforementioned scenario, but so was a VHS transceiver, the skill and knowledge of some local paddlers, and a GPS, or perhaps a chart to note one's location could have been useful as well. And why was this all needed? Because these "club" trips are apparently conducted as "an every-man-for-himself (or women) affair." Seems fairly irresponsible to me. Had the trip been conducted in a more organized and responsible manner then I doubt little more would have been required other then one or two paddlers to perform an assisted rescue, if that! So what was most important here? That the pfd was being worn? That the wetsuit was being worn? That someone was carrying a radio? Should all of this equipment, and perhaps much more, be mandatory for every person on every single boat all of the time? Is the equipment more important then the fact that these people put a person at risk? Do we carry all of this "stuff" in order to increase, or decrease the risk? I am NOT anti pfd. I do feel that much more emphasis is put on the value of a pfd in this sport then it deserves. I do not consider the pfd to be any more, or less important then any other piece of rescue and safety gear. In the right scenario any single piece of equipment might save your life. That does not mean that one must always carry every piece of crap in their boat that they can fit or afford just in case! There needs to be some sort of applied intelligence when matching safety equipment to the type of paddling one's doing. To come out with blanket statements like "one must ALWAYS wear a pfd," or "wetsuit," or "carry a radio," or GPS, flares, etc., is wrong! OK, I'm done. Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Sep 21 2002 - 09:12:59 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:59 PDT